An Offer To Refuse
by Kittioto
Summary: A short story about the offer Kami made to Piccolo to take his spot as Guardian of the Earth. Piccolo reflects on his past and his reasons to decline.It's old


Author's Notes: Hey!! Yo? Um... anyway, yes, I know, me bad for creating a short story whilst I COULD be working on Dream Maker, OR Small Warrior, OR Ends and Begins, OR yes, indeed, DBA Survivor: Dragon Ball Animorphs.... but, ya see, this has been on my mind FOREVER!!! And, by the way, this is just a short story thing, not an actual series. ^-^ Molly, don't you DARE try to coax me into making this a multi-chapter madness!!! I HAVE FOUR ALREADY!!!! ~BREATHES~ Anyway, this was some-what inspired by the song "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens. Just had to say that. IT'S A GREAT SONG!!! ~Sniffles~ It's placed in the time... er... rather I think it was a MOVIE where Kami approaches Piccolo, and since Piccolo had changed so dramatically, he's offering to hand his position down to him. THE OLD MAN WANTS TO RETIRE!!! But hey, can ya blame 'em? Being the guardian of earth could be rough, I'd think... um, well, I guess I'll let ya read now! Thanks again for all the reviews, guys!!! (And gals)  
  
  
Disclaimer: PICCOLO IS THE BEST!!! ... But he's not mine. I'd probably drive him crazy and get blowed up. ^-^  
  
  
Made on: Feb. 5th, 2002   
  
  
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(Piccolo's Point Of View)  
  
  
I was sparring. The normal split-technique I'd been using at the time... and I'd lost to my duplicates. I suppose that in a way it was no big deal... I was "out-numbered" after all. The weather was also very against me... most of the time I couldn't even see my clones, what with all the thunder and lightening, not to mention that it was pitch-black out.  
  
I stood still and closed my eyes to rest for a moment, soon after my self-rivals merged back into me. I was one again. With no sparring... and I could feel Kami approaching. I knew what he wanted. Of course I did... he wanted me to help him retire, to take over the look-out for him. Heh, fat chance of that. He could keep his job, I sure didn't want it. But still... oh well, it didn't matter.  
Of course it didn't.  
  
I didn't NEED his job. I didn't WANT his job. And he WASN'T going to shove it off on me because of his old age. He was very close now... we'd always had a link, despite that I couldn't stand being around the old man at times. But I could always sense his presence, and exactly what he wanted. Very, very close now...  
  
  
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The small Namek boy looked up at the seemingly endlessly tall farmer, confused by what he'd done to make him mad.  
  
"I said GET OUT, you FREAK!" The farmer bellowed. He was holding some sort of sharp object... something Piccolo had seen him cut wood with. Sharp...? Sharp... could cause damage.  
  
Piccolo, no more than three years old, backed away from the man with the sharp object with the wooden handle. Piccolo had seen this man make fire from the wood... he'd thought that if he could get some of that wood, he could make fire, too, and then he wouldn't be so cold at night. And winter was coming soon... Piccolo remembered the chilling winter.  
  
"I SAID GET OUT!! NOW!" The farmer came closer to Piccolo, threatening him with his ax.  
  
Piccolo took another couple of steps backwards, slightly intimidated, but he didn't want to leave without the fire-making wood. "But... wood!" He struggled with the words, not accostomed to speaking aloud.  
  
"You can't have it! You're a FREAK, a demon, an abomination! NOW GET OFF MY LAND! I don't want my family to see such a horrible creature!!"  
  
Horrible creature? Piccolo wasn't... horrible... was he?   
Piccolo turned and ran, not knowing what else he could do. He glanced back to notice that the farmer had hung back to make sure he'd left. When Piccolo reached the outline of the forest, he stopped and looked at his hands.  
  
"Horrible...? Freak?" He'd never been called this before... the animals in the forest never spoke to him, nor the trees or plants.   
  
Demon... he'd known. His father called himself a demon... to scare people. That's what the creature with the sharp thing was... a person.  
  
"People must be... bad." Then again, his father, of which he had his memories, had said that he was bad.  
"... Am I bad?" Piccolo looked away from his hands and back at the farm house. He didn't know what he was. He was still trying to make sense of all the visions in his head... it was a wonder that he'd lived as long as he had.  
That's when another memory came....  
  
Goku.  
  
Goku was his enemy. He had to train, and destroy Goku. That's what his father had vowed to do... so now he would, too.  
  
If his father hated people, and wanted to scare them... then people must be bad. And Goku... had tried to kill his father. Goku was a person too, so he must be bad.  
  
What Piccolo a person?  
He didn't know.   
He was... a... "Freak". A "Creature".  
Piccolo wasn't bad.  
  
  
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(Piccolo)  
  
  
  
Back to the present, I shook my head of the distant memory. My first memory. A memory I didn't specifically care for. Kami was closer now... in fact, he was here. But he was silent at first. Typically.  
  
... How could I even BEGIN to explain to Kami why I didn't want his job? I knew what he must have been thinking. ' Whenever I try to tell something to this boy, he always turns me away! ' Yeah, that was probably it. I was young compaired to Kami, the old man. He thought I didn't know enough. That I was too asumtious.  
  
' You're young, Piccolo... that's your only real fault. '  
  
I could just IMAGINE Kami thinking that. And yet, he wanted me to take over. It was always just the same old story...  
Ever since I could even TALK people had ordered me to listen to them. It was always the same thing. Listen or go. ... Usually, GO. First my father, leaving me to fend for myself in the wilderness, with nothing to guide me but some vengeful thoughts of his own twisted past.   
Then there were Humans. Humans never gave me the time of day to breath. Just because I looked different.  
And Kami... offering me to look over them? I couldn't. Not like this.  
  
It was there fault... I'd never done ANYTHING to harm them! Nothing at all! So I stopped caring about right and wrong, and let my father's memories guide me entirely, after a while. I even named myself after him. The second Piccolo.  
Then, my arch enemy, cared. It's amazing how irony can affect one's future.  
  
And here I was... protecting earth, offered to make it my life's work.  
  
I couldn't do it.  
And I didn't want it.  
I wouldn't do it.  
  
  
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Author's Notes: (again) Yup!! Short, I know... but see, that's why the phrase "Short Story" was invented!! ^-^ Well, thanks for reading, and please, if ya wouldn't mind, review?? Even if you didn't like it! Hey, constructive critism can be good. Oh yes, and I do apologize if some of the words in this are some-what in error of the spelling degree, my computer's spell-check program hasn't been working for quite some time... it annoys me, but what can I say? I still have to write!! Thanks again! 


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